


In the Dust under the Stars

by cleanlittlesecret



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Child Keith (Voltron), Gen, Parent-Child Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-12
Updated: 2018-03-12
Packaged: 2019-03-30 11:57:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13951077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cleanlittlesecret/pseuds/cleanlittlesecret
Summary: The woman entering his office must be close to seven feet tall if not taller, has long and pointed ears, and is entirelypurple.She has to duck to avoid hitting her face on the doorframe, and Iverson is so busy staring at her with his mouth open that he barely hears Mick say something before shutting the door behind her.What in the Sam Hill is this?(Or, AU where Krolia stayed on Earth to raise Keith, and most people are not as bothered by her as they probably should be. Plus some other changes.)





	In the Dust under the Stars

A knock sounded through the office, but before Iverson could respond, the door opened just enough to let Mick poke his head through. “Um, Principal Iverson. Keith’s mother is here.”

“Well, it’s about time.” Iverson closed the folder he had been skimming at his desk as he waited. It was common knowledge around the school that Keith’s family lived somewhere out in the desert instead of in town, but even then, two hours was too much. “Send Keith in with her.”

“Yes, sir, but first…uh…” After glancing back towards the hall, Mick leaned further into the room. “She’s…a little bit…”

“What? Hacked off?” Iverson snorted as he leaned back in his chair. “It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve dealt with an angry mom. Send her in, and I’ll handle it.”

“Right away, sir.” Mick dipped out of the room and left the door cracked open behind him.

Iverson pulled on the collar of his button-up shirt and fidgeted with the ends of his sleeves. Living in a small town in the desert had made him accustomed to the heat, but the school’s already strained air conditioning had gone on the fritz that day and let the building grow too hot for any kind of professional dress. Trying to ignore his discomfort, he redirected his mind to the meeting he was about to have—why had Keith’s mother finally come to his school? The boy’s father usually handled all Keith’s issues alone, and even on the rare occasions where Iverson had seen Keith in town outside of school, only his father had been with him. Of course, in a community this small and tight, rumors about Keith’s mother had floated around, but Iverson had dismissed them as nothing more than idle talk. He wouldn’t believe anything those sun-dazed gossips said without seeing it for himself.

So when the door swung open with Mick saying, “This way, please,” Iverson stood to greet Keith’s mother like he did with all the other parents. And then froze.

The woman entering his office must have been close to seven feet tall if not taller, had long and pointed ears, and was entirely _purple._ She had to duck to avoid hitting her face on the doorframe, and Iverson was so busy staring at her with his mouth open that he barely heard Mick say something before shutting the door behind her.

_What in the Sam Hill is this?_

“My apologies for making you wait. I was hiking when your assistant called.” Her voice was light and neat, something unexpected from her wild appearance, but then she offered a hand, and, oh look. Literal claws. “I’m Krolia.”

“Uh, right. Yes.” He shook her hand and tried not to think about how it felt strong enough to tear his desk apart in seconds. “I’m Principal Iverson. Please, have a seat.”

The woman— _Krolia?_ —sat in one of the two chairs facing his desk, and her knees came up alarmingly high because the furniture had obviously not been built with a giantess in mind. It wasn’t until Keith climbed into the chair beside hers that Iverson noticed he had accompanied his mother into the room.

After how many years he had spent living in the middle of nowhere, Iverson had learned not to be too surprised by unusual things and events. The desert seemed to both attract weirdness to the town and draw it out from the locals, and that wasn’t even going into how he had to dispel rumors about his elementary school being used for secret government research at every other PTA meeting. He had gotten pretty good at taking things in stride, but learning one of his students had a mother who looked like the crayon version of an urban legend’s monster was a bit beyond his skill level, and he couldn’t rationalize what he was seeing.

But if he ignored almost everything about her person, Krolia _was_ dressed in a style similar to that of other women he had seen around town—flannel shirt, canvas pants, and work boots that had made her steps _thud_ when she entered his office. The normality of her outfit somehow made her even more confusing, as if she had crawled out of an uncanny valley of mothers specifically to torment him.

All he had wanted to do was run a nice school for children to get their educations. Was that too much to ask?

“Sir.” Krolia’s voice cut into his spiraling train of thought. “I understand you had something you wanted to talk to me about?”

“Ah. Yes.” Iverson dropped into his chair and reopened the folder containing Keith’s records. He needed something to help him focus if he was going to get through this meeting. “Your…son, Keith, started a fight earlier with two other boys in his class during their P.E. time. In addition to the usual hitting and kicking, he bit one of them so badly the nurse had to give the boy stitches.”

His face marked with darkening bruises and colorful band-aids, Keith glared a hole into the desk before him as Iverson talked. Even compared to the other problem kids that had come through Garristown Elementary, Keith fought with a level of ferocity surprising for an eight-year-old, but after seeing Krolia, Iverson was getting an idea of where it came from.

Iverson sat back in his chair as he returned his attention to Krolia. “Normally we would have given the child who started the fight detention or some other punishment, but Keith has done this too many times. Garristown Elementary cannot have a student who fights with the other children as much as Keith does, and this time he was especially destructive, so your son will have to be expelled.”

Krolia sat up straighter and clasped her hands together in her lap. “What do you mean by _expelled_?”

“It means Keith will no longer be allowed to attend this school. He will have to go somewhere else.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Where, exactly?” Sharp teeth flashed in her mouth as she talked. “This is the only school in this town, and this town is the only human settlement even remotely close to our house. There is nowhere else he can go.”

“I’m sorry to hear that—” _Oh, how he really was._ “—but the matter is out of my hands. What do you think the parents of our other students will say if we continue to let a child as dangerous as yours be around the others? For the wellbeing of our students, Keith must go somewhere else.”

Krolia stared at him until a fat drop of sweat crashed down the back of his neck. When she rose to her feet, Iverson leaned his chair back to maintain a safe distance, but instead of lunging at him, Krolia pulled a piece of folded paper from her pants pocket, opened it, and spread it on Iverson’s desk. The paper was large enough to cover the desk’s surface and filled with colored patches and curved lines—a topographic map? Judging by the yellowed paper and its torn edges, the map was old, and it was marked with notes written in a curling script.

“All right then.” Krolia pointed to a large circle among the lines. “This here is Garristown.” Her claw moved to a small triangle. “And this is my family’s house.” She pinned him to his chair with her gaze. “Now, please tell me where to find a school I can reach in a reasonable amount of time with a truck or hoverbike.”

 _Hoverbike?_ But Iverson was too busy leaning away from her to question the term, even though her tone was overall polite. The map showed what they both already knew—there were no other towns for several miles, much less an elementary school. Iverson tugged on the collar of his shirt and cleared his throat. When had his office turned into a furnace? “There are other options. Keith could receive his schooling at home.”

Krolia leaned up from the desk to stand at her full height. “I do not have the education for that, and my partner is busy with work.”

“Then could you move to somewhere that has another school?”

“No. We can’t afford to move, and what I’m investigating is in this area only.”

“…I see.” Iverson made a small cough and was tempted to call for Mick to bring him a glass of water. “Well, I normally wouldn’t suggest this to a parent, but how about some kind of boarding school?”

Krolia tilted her head. “What is that?”

“It’s a school where the students live on campus during the semester—away from their parents or guardians.” Iverson’s words gained speed when Krolia’s eyes narrowed again. “Many of these schools are good for children by giving them structure and discipline, and you would still see him during the breaks—”

“My son is _eight years old._ ” Krolia’s voice dropped low. “He is still very much a child by your people’s standards, and I will not have someone else raise him for me. I suggest you come up with another option, Principal Iverson.”

Silence reigned in the office for at least a solid minute as Iverson found himself praying for someone to deliver him from this woman—he really needed to get a panic button installed under his desk. At last, he took a deep breath and sat up in his chair. “All right, ma’am. Please sit.”

After returning her map to her pocket, Krolia sank into the chair again. She interlaced her fingers as if to wait for him to speak, but he didn’t miss the way her claws dug into the backs of her hands. Iverson lowered his head to rub his temples. He saw only one solution, and part of him couldn’t believe he was about to do it, but he could think of no other way to avoid having this woman out for his blood. He would much rather deal with a whole mob of PTA moms than see her ever again.

“This is not my ideal plan, but I can make an exception— _one_ exception—for your son, just for today. He will be suspended two days for the fight, but after that, he may return to school here. How does that sound?”

“I would prefer not to have him miss school at all,” Krolia said, and Iverson’s shoulders tensed, “but if that is the way he must be punished, then so be it.”

He let out a long sigh, then gathered himself as if he could hold onto any shred of his authority in this situation. “This will be his only warning, though. Got it?” Iverson focused his gaze on Keith. “If he starts any more fights, he will be forced to leave. I can’t have my school turn into a brawling pit.”

“I understand, sir,” Krolia said. “I’ll talk to Keith about this later.”

“Good.” Iverson got up to circle around the room to the door—pressing himself against the wall as he passed Krolia to maintain distance—and stuck his head outside. “Mick!”

A few seconds later, Mick popped into view from his own tiny office down the hall and crept closer. “Yes, sir?”

“Keith is being suspended for two days. Do the paperwork.”

“Yes, sir!” Mick darted into his office, and Iverson turned back to the watching Krolia.

“You two can go now. Talk to my assistant on the way out, and he’ll give you a slip for your son’s suspension.”

“Thank you.” Krolia got to her feet and tapped on Keith’s shoulder. “Come on, Keith. I want to stop at the grocery store on the way home.”

Keith slid out of his chair to follow her, and Iverson stood back to let them pass. Once they were outside, he jumped to close the door behind them, then returned behind his desk to drop into his chair and let out a long groan. How could he cave in like that? He, _the_ Principal Iverson, a man who had a reputation for being strict and iron-willed, had given into the intimidation of some problem kid’s mother. But then again, he could handle only so much, and his salary didn’t justify the risk of angering women who might be monsters and could definitely kill him.

Anyways, it would be best to put the matter behind him and focus on what else needed to be done that day. First priority should be getting the air conditioning fixed, but just as Iverson thought of making a call, he remembered the man who worked on the school’s heating and cooling system was none other than Keith’s father, and he buried his face in his hands instead. He’d had enough of that family for the day, if not for the rest of his life.

* * *

Garristown Elementary’s parking lot was little more than a yard of unmarked gravel, so Krolia had parked her hoverbike sideways between two cars to ensure there would be enough room for its wingspan. The first thing she did upon returning to it with Keith in tow was pull on the bungee cords she had used to tie her backpack behind the seat. Despite its weight, the backpack was still secure, so she shoved Keith’s schoolbag underneath the cords, helped Keith climb onto the seat, and got on behind him. “Your dad won’t be coming home until tomorrow, so it’ll be just me and you tonight.”

“Mm.” Keith hunched his shoulders forward and crossed his arms. No mention had been made of why the fight had happened, but Krolia knew better than to ask when Keith was like this, so instead she stretched her arms around him to the controls and started the hoverbike.

“Do you have any ideas about supper?” she said.

“No.”

“Great. Me neither. Guess we’ll find something at the store.”

The vehicles on either side shook on their wheels as the hoverbike lifted into the air, and more than one car alarm went off as they left the parking lot. It took only a short flight to reach the grocery store, but thanks to the span of the hoverbike’s wings, Krolia had to park it on the line between two empty spots. She would have preferred to leave it somewhere away from Earthling eyes, but she had been warned about conforming to this planet’s cultural rules, so after parking her vehicle as properly as she could, she got down with Keith and headed into the store.

The glare of fluorescent lights reflecting off white floors and walls made her squint as soon as she entered. Even compared to the burning sun outside, the grocery store was always bright enough to make her miss the dimmer and softer lighting of Galra spaceships. Keith grabbed a buggy like usual, but as he pushed the squeaking cart, he kept his gaze lowered to the floor. Stares followed them down the aisles, but this was not the first time Krolia had visited this store, and most people shrugged her off after a few minutes. In Garristown, everyone got used to everything eventually.

As they traveled the store to gather the supplies they could always use a little more of—bread, cheese, canned foods—a bouquet of smells gathered inside Krolia’s head. Bleach singed the air in an aisle that had recently been cleaned, the odor of blood coiled around the door to the butcher’s workroom at the back of the store, and whiffs of fruits and vegetables mingled in the produce section. The sustenance packets that kept most Galra from starving in their spaceships had smelled like vitamins and contained less flavor than Keith’s baby food, and the Blade of Marmora’s rations hadn’t been much better. When the sweet aroma of strawberries turned her head, Krolia grabbed a box of them and dropped it into the buggy without a second thought. That could be a dessert, but what about dinner?

“Can we have hotdogs?” The murmur was barely audible, and Keith kept his head down as he said it, but Krolia smiled. Looked like he was starting to open back up.

“Yes, we can. Take us to the refrigerated meats.”

With their shopping done, Krolia considered the rows of snacks available as she waited at the checkout. Chocolate was prone to liquefying in the heat, but gummies didn’t melt as far as she knew, so she grabbed a pack of gummy worms and added it to the buggy as a treat for Keith. She turned to look for his reaction, but he was standing just beyond the entry of the checkout lane with his face pressed close to a refrigerator full of popsicles. He stared through the window in a way that said he wanted one but didn’t want to ask, and, well, they could both use something cold to eat after the day they’d had.

“Keith,” Krolia called, and when he looked at her, she held up two fingers. “One for me and one for you. Your choice.” Keith’s face brightened until a smile peeked out, and there was her son, happy even with his fight-battered face. As Krolia paid for their groceries, the girl working the cash register didn’t bat an eye, already hardened from the small daily traumas of customer service like the rest of the store’s employees.

Outside, the roof’s overhang provided a narrow lane of shade in front of the grocery store. Popsicle in hand, Keith climbed onto the back of a coin-operated kiddie ride that had broken down long before Krolia had come to Earth. The ride was shaped like some kind of creature with a head, four legs, and a tail, but only a few scabs of faded paint clung to its skin, which made it difficult to tell what animal it was supposed to be. A horse? A dog? A lion? For all Krolia knew, it could be some kind of Earth animal she had never even heard of.

After setting their groceries on the ground in front of the ride, Krolia sat beside the bags and tore open her popsicle’s wrapper. She let the silence hold as she bit off half of the grape-flavored ice and chewed, but after she swallowed, she leaned back against the ride’s base. “Are you ready to talk about what happened at school today?”

A small noise answered, and when Krolia looked up, she found Keith scowling around his cherry popsicle. She turned to sit parallel with the mystery animal so she could look at him more easily.

“All right then. Seeing as you’re banned from school for two days, I’ll take you hiking with me tomorrow. Does that sound all right to you?”

A nod.

“Your dad should get home sometime late tomorrow, so he can decide what you’ll do the day after that.” Another bite into her popsicle, but this time the purple liquified between her teeth. “Keith, you know he’ll want a decent explanation of what happened if he calls. What am I going to tell him?”

Keith leaned against the back of the mystery animal’s neck and head, and with a sigh, he pulled the popsicle from his mouth. “The other boys were picking on this old dog that had been sleeping on the edge of the playground—like, they were throwing rocks at it and stuff. So I told them to leave it alone.”

Krolia waited for more, but when he nibbled on his popsicle instead, she said, “And that was all it took to start the fight?”

“Well, no, but…” Keith looked away and mumbled, “I don’t want to tell you the rest.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’ll make you feel bad.”

Krolia scoffed. “I’m pretty sure I’m tough enough to take anything Earthlings can come up with—especially the younger ones.”

“Yeah, but…” Keith gnawed his popsicle in an obvious bid to avoid talking, so Krolia bit the flat stick in her hand and slowly splintered it between her teeth as the seconds ticked by. At last Keith mumbled, “When I tried to stop them, they asked me if the dog was your sister. That’s when I started hitting them.”

Krolia blinked and pulled the split stick from her mouth. “Well, that was a ridiculous thing for them to say. I may not be human, but I’m not a dog either.” Her face tensed into a frown as the implications of what he’d said crept into view. Normally, Keith’s dad drove him to school on his way to work in the mornings, but since he hadn’t been available that day, she had given Keith a ride on her hoverbike before flying into the desert to go hiking. He had insisted she drop him off on the outskirts of town instead of closer to the school—had that been to keep her from being seen by his classmates? Had this not been the first time he was teased about who his mother was?

“Are you mad?” Keith watched her with wide eyes, and his teeth sank into his lip after he spoke. Krolia put on a faint smile.

“No, I’m not mad—well, maybe I am at your classmates, but not with you. I don’t like that you got into another fight at school, especially since this one almost got you expelled, but I understand why you did it.” She let her voice grow firm. “But you must find a new way to handle problems with the other children. All this fighting is becoming an issue, and you can’t solve every disagreement with force.”

Looking away, Keith shrugged. “Victory or death, right?”

Krolia flinched at the sound of an ancient empire’s motto being spoken in the voice of her own son. For years, stories about the Galra Empire and the Blade of Marmora had been Keith’s main entertainment when he wasn’t busy playing or listening to his dad’s ancient CDs, but she never would have expected this result. “No, _victory or death_ is what the bad guys say. My side believes in _knowledge or death_ —although that may not be much better in the long term, I’ll admit.”

“Oh.” Keith’s shoulders slumped. “Sorry.”

Watching him deflate from the correction, Krolia set her hands on the concrete behind her and leaned back. “But you can’t get any more knowledge if you can’t go to school, so I guess that just leaves you…death.” When Keith’s eyes widened, she let a small laugh break through the nonchalant act. “Don’t worry. I was joking—”

A yelp jumped out as red dripped down Keith’s fingers from the melting popsicle, and Krolia smiled. Nothing cold lasted in this place.

“Hurry and finish that so we can go,” she said as he scrambled to lick his hand clean. “It’ll be a long flight to the house.” Piloting a hoverbike that was carrying her, a hiking backpack, her child, and bags of groceries would be a challenge, but Krolia had a natural talent for managing overloaded vehicles, and Keith was fearless in the air.

* * *

The desert shack Krolia had been calling home for the last ten years had a wooden roof so steep that even she had trouble standing on it without sliding towards the edge, but that never stopped her from climbing up there with Keith when they wanted a nice place to watch the sunset. As the sky began to darken overhead, the two of them sat together on the line of the roof’s peak with their food, and when they had finished the hotdogs, they both moved onto the sweets she had bought at the store.

Krolia watched the horizon as the air cooled and points of light appeared in the darkness. Out here where they couldn’t be hidden by clouds or manmade lighting, the stars gathered in uncountable numbers like soldiers in a vast army, and the sight brought up memories of what it had been like to live among them. Returning her gaze to the sun, Krolia popped a strawberry into her mouth without bothering to remove its stem. Keith’s dad had gagged the first time he saw her do that, and he still grimaced when she did it around him ten years later, but Keith wasn’t bothered by it. When she glanced towards him, the earlier conversation and its unanswered concerns floated into her mind, so she chewed and swallowed the strawberry. “Keith.”

“Huh?” The plastic bag crunched in his hands as he pulled out a clump of gummy worms and shoved them into his mouth.

“I want to ask you some questions, and I need you to give me honest answers. Can you do that?”

The noise of Keith’s chewing slowed, and the stiff plastic crunched out protests between his hands. He almost choked as he swallowed the mouthful of candy and coughed, but when he spoke, his voice came out in a careful, “Yes?”

“Do the other children tease you about me at school?”

His eyes dropped to the plastic bag. “…Sometimes.”

“Is that the real reason you get into so many fights?”

“No. They make fun of me for other things too.”

Krolia’s eyebrows furrowed as her teeth ground together. Someone at the school would be hearing from her or her partner after Keith’s suspension ended. “Have you told your teachers about it?”

“No. It would just get worse.”

“What do you mean?”

Keith loudly fidgeted with the plastic bag, and after a few seconds, he raised it to his mouth to chew on one corner. Krolia let out a slow breath.

“Are you embarrassed that I’m your mom?”

“No!” Keith bolted upright to stare at her as if asking, _how could you even think something like that?_ “It’s not your fault! My school is just full of dumb jerks.”

She snorted and leaned back. “I’ve found that most places tend to have their share of ‘dumb jerks,’ so you probably need to learn how to cope with them.”

“I hate them.”

Krolia tilted her head to give him a slight frown. “Don’t get carried away now. You’re too young to be bitter.” She ran a claw across the lid on her box of strawberries. “I’m sure that if you can get away from the students who are mean to you, you’ll find some nice people in your school. You might even make some friends of your own.”

“Doubt it,” Keith muttered as he looked towards where the sun had disappeared over the horizon. Barely any daylight was left around them, but Krolia could still see the tension in his jaw as he grabbed more gummy worms from his bag. To any stranger who saw him, Keith must have looked as human as his dad was—why did Earthlings have such strong genes? Yes, there was some of her structure in his face, but ignorant eyes would never see the Galra in him. If it wasn’t for her, Keith could have gone his entire life without any other Earthling guessing what he really was.

She had known from the beginning that this would not be easy, but what if it was more difficult for Keith than it was for her? She had been glad to share her life with her family, and Keith had always enjoyed the stories, but she would never forget the look on his dad’s face when he suggested they hide her knife so Keith wouldn’t hurt himself with it. Did she endanger him too, just by being what she was?

“What did Dad go away for?” Keith muttered the question like he didn’t expect a real answer. He was probably trying to redirect the conversation to a more comfortable topic, and with a shrug, Krolia decided to follow his lead as she ate another strawberry.

“He had to pick up something he’d ordered. The postal service wouldn’t bring it all the way out to Garristown.”

“I know that much, but…” He frowned. “What is it he’s getting?”

“It’s supposed to be a surprise, so I can’t tell you.”

Keith huffed and crossed his arms. “Of course.” As he glared towards the ground, Krolia brushed his dark hair away from his face and let her fingers run through the longer strands towards the back. His dad had complained about Keith’s hair growing too long too often, but she thought it was fine the way it was.

“Can you make me a promise?”

He raised his head to look at her. “What kind of promise?”

“One to keep a secret.” She kept her voice steady. “You have to promise that if I tell you what your dad is bringing home, you won’t let him know I told you. Can you do that?”

Keith grinned. “Yeah!”

Krolia held up her hand. “This is serious, Keith. Promises and secrets are both important things, so don’t take this lightly.”

“I _swear_ I won’t tell—so what is it?” He leaned closer, so Krolia dropped her voice like this was a secret mission between them.

“It’s a radio.”

Eyebrows furrowing, Keith slowly tilted his head. “A…radio?”

She nodded. “A high-tech one that can receive signals from almost anywhere, even out here in the middle of the desert—it can supposedly pick up transmissions from outer space as well.” She glanced towards the stars. “Who knows? We may hear something from any Galra who are close by.”

“Really?!” Keith leaned forward to see her face better. “From the Blades or the Empire?”

“Maybe. I can’t say anything for sure, though.”

“That would be—!” Keith yelped as he slipped, and Krolia lunged to catch him by the shirt before he could go sliding off the roof. The plastic bag of gummy worms skittered down the wood before falling into silence, and Krolia let out a small, shaky breath.

“I think it’s time we go inside. It’s getting cold out here anyways.”

“Okay.” Keith’s voice dipped, but it wasn’t enough to spoil the energy that had been there before. Krolia pulled him back onto the peak of the roof, and once he was secure, she got to her feet. Her boots had just enough grip to keep her from sliding, but she allowed gravity’s pull to hurry her steps until she jumped off the edge. The landing was easy, so after setting her strawberries on the porch and moving back to stand under the overhang, she held up her open arms.

“Here, Keith.”

A few seconds of fabric rasping against wood, and then Keith dropped the short distance into her arms. After she set him down, Keith found his candy bag on the dark ground and resumed his excitement. “Getting to hear the Galra would be really cool!”

“It would be nice to have something to listen to other than the CD collection.” Krolia reclaimed her strawberries and led the way inside. “Maybe you’ll get to hear old Kolivan being his grumpy self.”

Of course, both the Galra Empire and the Blade of Marmora were little more than bedtime stories to Keith—he was still too young to grasp the full reality of something so beyond his experience, and he had little evidence of them other than Krolia’s words and her knife. As she listened to him dissolve into chatter at the idea of finally hearing something from the people he’d heard so much about, Krolia’s heart sank in her chest. To be honest, she had first taken an interest in the radio in the hope it would let her reconnect with someone out there—even if it couldn’t broadcast signals of its own, it could at least give her some information to break the total silence she’d had ever since coming to this planet.

The Earthlings had gotten pretty good at visiting their own moon, and they had started forays into the more distant parts of their own system, but they were still eons behind the kind of space travel the Galra were using. She was as good as shipwrecked on this planet, but she could at least keep watch for any sign of someone coming near them.

But at the moment, she had more immediate concerns to attend to, so she found the cord leading to the overhead lights and pulled them on. “Do you have any homework to do?” Keith’s chatter cut into a whine, and Krolia crossed her arms. “None of that now. You’re still going to do your work even if you can’t go to school.”

“… _Okay_ …” With a pout, Keith grabbed his schoolbag from against the wall and brought it to the low table.

As the evening passed, Krolia sat on the couch behind him to eat her strawberries and offer assistance where possible, but his schoolwork was already moving beyond the boundaries of what she knew about Earth’s culture and history, so she couldn’t help much. The shack soon fell silent as she watched Keith work, but though it was quiet outside, she couldn’t help glancing towards where her knife had been hidden behind a bookshelf as if readying herself for a fight. No matter what happened or what this radio brought to her, she was going to protect her family. This wouldn’t be taken from her by anyone, Galra or otherwise.


End file.
